MINNEAPOLIS — General Mills Inc. finished the first half of fiscal 2025 strong as efforts to spur volume and market share growth bore fruit in the second quarter.

With the improved performance, the Minneapolis-based food company now aims to bolster its value proposition to consumers to drive longer-term gains, though that will come with a cost, said Jeffrey Harmening, chairman and chief executive officer.

“To achieve and build on our broad-based improvements in volume and share, we’ve stepped up our investment to bring greater value to consumers, which results in a lower outlook on operating profit and EPS in fiscal 2025,” Harmening said in remarks to analysts on second-quarter results. “Amidst a dynamic and uncertain macroeconomic backdrop for consumers, we believe this is the right choice to further strengthen the remarkability of our offerings, which will better position General Mills for sustainable growth in fiscal ’26 and beyond.”

For the quarter ended Nov. 24, net income climbed 34% to $795.7 million, equal to $1.42 per share on the common stock, from $595.5 million, or $1.02 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share in constant currency came in at $1.40, compared with $1.25 in the prior-year period. On average, analysts had forecast adjusted EPS of $1.22.

Second-quarter net sales rose 2% to $5.24 billion from $5.14 billion a year ago, with organic net sales growing 1%, General Mills said. Operating income surged 33% to $1.08 billion but on an adjusted basis in constant currency was up 7% to $1.06 billion.

“Entering fiscal 2025, our top priority was to accelerate our organic net sales growth, and specifically our volume growth, by delivering remarkable experiences to consumers across our leading food brands,” Harmening said. “As we look at the first half of the year, we made encouraging progress accelerating our volume growth and market share trends, including returning our North America Pet business to growth. General Mills’ first-half organic volume growth was 4 points better than our fiscal ’24 result, and we drove a significant increase in the proportion of our business growing share. Our pound share has improved most notably, with dollar share improving at a slower rate, as we expected, given our investments to increase value for consumers.”

For the first half, net earnings grew 8% to $1.38 billion, or $2.45 per share, from $1.27 billion, or $1.16 per share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted diluted EPS was $2.47 versus $2.34 a year ago. Net sales totaled $10.9 billion, flat on both a reported and an organic basis.

“These results are due to our continued focus on delivering remarkable experiences to consumers across the total product offering,” Harmening said. “We are investing to bring consumers superior products and benefits, at the right value, supported with remarkable brand building and omnichannel visibility. This work drove improved performance on many important businesses such as pet food, cereal, fruit snacks and our foodservice product lines. At the same time, we have more work to do in other places, with refrigerated dough offering the biggest opportunity for improvement.”

General Mills’ North America Retail business posted second-quarter net sales of $3.32 billion, flat on a reported basis but up 1% organically. Segment operating profit also was flat at $862.3 million. The company said net sales topped Nielsen-measured retail sales by about 2 points, reflecting higher retailer inventory due in part to the later Thanksgiving holiday and stronger growth in non-measured channels. Net sales grew by mid-single digits for US Morning Foods and by low single digits for US Snacks but dipped by low single digits for US Meals & Baking Solutions.

“North America Retail’s pound and dollar trends strengthened in Q2 in 7 of our top 10 US retail categories,” Harmening said. “Nearly 60% of our US retail priority businesses grew or held pound share in Q2. And our results on dollar share moved up to 50% growing or holding share over the past month as we returned our US cereal business to dollar share growth behind great consumer news, advertising and merchandising execution, including successful campaigns with the Kelce brothers and Chex Holiday Season. These share improvements have translated into strengthened retail sales growth across most of our US portfolio from Q1 to Q2.

“Those gains have been largely offset, however, by a step back on refrigerated dough, which has had a disappointing start to the key baking season. As we move to the second half, we’ll build on our improving momentum on businesses like cereal, fruit snacks, Mexican food and soup, and we’ll step up our plans and reinvest to improve our trends on refrigerated dough.”

Second-quarter net sales increased by 8% year over year to $630 million for North America Foodservice and by 1% to $690.6 million for International. In the North America Pet unit, net sales rose 5% to $595.8 million. Operating income rose 36% for Pet and 24% for Foodservice but fell 31% for International.

“Our improvement in volume and market share is requiring higher promotional investment than we initially planned,” Bruce said. “A portion of that incremental investment fell in the first half, and we expect a greater portion to hit in the second half.”